Gosport schools celebrates becoming an academy

Gomer Junior School, in Gosport, is the first primary school in the town to get the status.

To celebrate, the students spent the day decorating cakes, making cake boxes and, because the school is a beach school, painting pebbles to remember the occasion.

As previously reported in The News the school has converted after joining forces with Gosport’s Bay House School and Lord Wilson School Academy, in Sarisbury Green, to create the Gosport and Fareham multi-academy trust.

Headteacher Georgina Mulhall said: ‘This partnership is a wonderful opportunity to provide wider benefits for pupils and staff across all phases of education.

‘We really wanted to celebrate the change and the children have enjoyed all the activities.

‘For the cake decorating and painting we mixed the age groups so our pupils could interact with each other and we can get that community ethos.

‘We hope to use the pebbles to make a mosaic or structure to remember this important day.’

Pupils from Bay House and Lord Wilson also went to Gomer to interact with and help the children by sharing their skills.

Ian Potter, headteacher of Bay House, also visited the school.

He said: ‘This is an important step in realising a vision of schools working together for the good of the young people in Gosport.

‘I believe it takes a town to raise a child and this initiative will strengthen the education provision in Gosport.’

Although the Gosport and Fareham multi-academy trust only has the three schools involved, Mr Potter said it could expand.

‘The foundation of this trust provides choice for schools who are considering joining a multi-academy trust themselves,’ he said.

Lord Wilson headteacher Stuart Parker-Tyreman said it was good for his students to have the opportunities the trust can provide.

He added: ‘This allows us to prepare our students for mainstream schools and getting them interacting with others. It is great for everyone involved.’